By Stabroek News
Copyright stabroeknews
Dear Editor,
Since parliament is making the rounds, weighing-in should help to get it going. The longer that parliament remains on the sidelines, a spectator to developments, then the less democracy should be spoken of, taken seriously. The four-month recess is too long. President Ali signed the Proclamation Orders on Thursday, July 3. The results of the elections came out in the first week of September, and the new (returning) PPP Government is up and running with vigor and vision towards daylight. The government’s path is clear, unencumbered by obstacles. Perhaps, it is a little too much on the unfettered side in a nation that calls itself a democracy; and a government whose people use every opportunity to remind everyone about that democratic state. To keep the peace, I refrain from commenting on the quality of that state. But I take advantage of the right to ask, where is that underpinning, asset, of democracy, that ought to have already been convened and called into session?
Whither parliament? I quietly, humbly, whisper in Pres. Ali’s ear that stretching out its absence to the maximum allowable, i.e., to November 3rd, would be a step in the wrong direction. There is much work to do, so any delay is a moment wasted, one that cannot be afforded. The PPP side of the parliamentary aisle now has not a one seat majority, but seven times that slenderness. The PPP was unstoppable with its one-seat advantage in the 2020-2025 interlude. Therefore, it shouldn’t fear with its thicker, stronger cushion in the National Assembly. It is called the National Assembly for a reason. For one, it is not the exclusivity of the Government Assembly; or the Opposition Assembly. It is the National Assembly, as provided for in the Guyana Constitution, encapsulates all the people. The PPP Government should be there already. So, too, the WIN party, the APNU party, and the FGM party. But parliament’s doors have not been opened, and all that is seen and heard is PPP Government, PPP Government, PPP…
The National Assembly is the assembly of the Guyanese people, as they are represented by those for whom they marked an X and deposited that precious slip evidencing their trust. Thus, those opposition boots had to have walked parliament’s floors already. Opposition voices, however they turn out to be, should already have been heard in parliament; resounding from the walls, and soaring to the rafters. At least, I hope so, and also hope that they are capable of such, limitations aside. If not that, then what do Guyanese have in this democracy that congratulates itself on being inspiring?
There is a slew of reports, such as they are, such as they are held out to be, from the Audit Office. Those are waiting for honest scrutiny. After the hundreds of billions spent, there is a considerable amount of parliamentary oversight waiting on a signal from the government that the People’s House will be opened for business soon, very soon. I had expected parliament to be convened by the end of September, which I thought was a proper interval. If only an announcement in mid to late September that it will be on such a date, that would have sufficed, but on one condition only. The government did not use the entire four months (to the first few days in November) before it decided to get parliament going. I would think that the PPP Government would be keen on the earliest date, for it is another forum for its people to expound on its achievements, its virtues. In addition, it has new blood, and some people in charge of new portfolios, hence it is constructive to get both of those PPP Government subsets of stalwarts on the move, so that they get past their first baptisms.
On another note, the longer that the government drags its feet on announcing the opening of the 13th parliament, the more it risks looking weak and uncertain, if not uneasy. None of that should be with a seven-seat advantage. So, what does the silence on a date, and the absence of, the 13th parliament roaring into life, relay to me? I have sifted through different permutations and situations, and I arrived at one place that is a tad on the alarming side. The PPP Government, the PPP leadership, the two cannot be that superstitious, that anxious, about the number 13, are they? In Guyana, anything and everything have some element of what is believable. My last piece of advice to the PPP is that seven reduces 13 to a beginner, nonstarter.
